[TowerTalk] Draining a conduit run

[Bill Ogden]

I need some first-hand advice.

A few years ago I put a 40-foot long, 3-inch (schedule 40) pipe
from my house to my tower.  Center is about 10 inches
under ground.  Stupid me, I eye-balled the slope and
got it wrong. The pipe often contains water, possibly
condensation plus some rain seepage.

My lovely shale "soil" is not easy to dig and power
equipment is not convenient. I dug up the pipe today
and did a little checking with a level. The tower end
slopes a little toward the tower. The other half is
about level.

Questions: I plan to drill a few quarter-inch holes in
the sweep at the tower end and dig  a 6+ inch dry well
under it. Is this reasonable?  I plan to drill holes
along the level portion (in the bottom of the pipe, of
course) and set it on an inch or so of rocks, with the
rocks forming the drainage. Is this reasonable?

I also plan to do a better job of glueing the pipe
sections together, with the intention of keeping out
rain seepage.  The entry/exit points have 180-degree
bends pointing downward and I am reasonably certain
no rain enters this way.

(BTW, a shop vacuum---run in reverse--does a good job
clearing water from the pipe and dries it out after a
while.  It takes an hour or so to dry the interior.
Three years of this water situation seems to have
done no harm to the coax and control cables, but I.
want to fix the problem anyway.)


Bill - W2WO